Fired Equipment Turnaround Reviews

Fired Equipment Turnaround Reviews

With contributing author: Grant Jacobson

Fired equipment is a critical part of most refinery process units. Operating at high temperatures and potentially high pressures make these equipment items particularly risky. Add in the presence of open flames and failures can be dramatic. In today’s refining climate, fired equipment is required to run 5 to 10 years between outages. To achieve a reliable operation for runs of this length, solid shutdown, maintenance, inspection, repair, and start-up strategies coupled with online monitoring and a well-defined operating envelope are critical.

Recently, a Midwest refinery contracted Becht to complete a detailed review of their fired equipment for an upcoming turnaround. Becht used a team of experienced subject matter experts to provide an in-depth review of more than a dozen fired equipment items. To provide a holistic approach, Becht utilized experts with backgrounds in process engineering, heat transfer, mechanical integrity, inspection, and operations. The goal of the review was to ensure the fired equipment would provide reliable operation until the next scheduled outage in 5 years.

Reviewing The Data

The first step of the process consisted of reviewing data including: design criteria; operating history; inspection and NDE history; leak, repair, and engineering analysis information; and PHA information. A review of onstream thermography (IR) also was completed. While onsite, Becht worked with owner representatives from operations, maintenance, process, inspection, reliability, and PSM to review and answer any questions from the data review step, discuss concerns, and validate data gaps. Each piece of fired equipment was also walked down in the field to ensure the provided information was consistent with the actual condition of the fired equipment.

Field Walk-Downs and Recommendations

Information from the data review, onsite discussions, and field walk-downs was compiled by the Becht team and compared to the existing turnaround plan. Recommendations were made in areas where the initial turnaround plan was deficient of a critical item or had extraneous tasks. Each recommendation was also provided with justifications, citing client procedures, industry standards, and best practices. Additionally, the recommendations were risk ranked, using the owner’s Risk Matrix to provide the refinery with a prioritization tool.

Some example results from the review were:

  • Onstream thermography recommendations
  • Practices to ensure safe shutdown of fired equipment
  • Best practices for servicing of emergency devices
  • Better anticipation of repairs
  • Selection of appropriate NDE techniques based on damage mechanisms
  • Start-up best practices

 

Conclusions

The risk-ranked recommendations (with justifications) provided the refinery with the ammunition needed to modify their existing shutdown plans. The review validated and improved the scope of their turnaround plans, both by better addressing critical items and eliminating unnecessary tasks. After the turnaround was completed, Becht reviewed results with the client and determined that Becht’s recommendations were spot on for the conditions found during the outage. The review also identified key online improvements and leveraged advanced thermography techniques, which Becht can support via our Fired Heaters Division, to facilitate continued improvement for the next planned turnaround.


Becht can help you fix your equipment when it breaks, but we can also help you operate it and monitor it while it’s online. Do you know the lifecycle of your equipment? Is it operating it to its fullest potential? Is there more that you could be doing to optimize? Becht can provide a detailed review of your equipment and analysis of your data. Click below to get more value out of your assets:

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About The Author

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Mr. Caserta is a registered professional engineer in the states of Ohio and Texas. He has over 20 years of a wide breadth of engineering experience in oil refining, chemical processing, and consulting. Mr. Caserta's varied background provides unique insights into process interactions, equipment reliability, and corrosion and materials concerns. He currently oversees Becht’s corrosion control document (CCD) /integrity operating window (IOW) implementation team and risk-based inspection (RBI) team. He has personally been involved in development of CCDs and IOWs for over 100 different process units and RBI analysis for over 200 process units. The past 15 years of Mr. Caserta's career has focused on mechanical integrity, fixed equipment reliability, and inspection. He has a strong knowledge of damage mechanisms through practical experience. He has been involved in risk-based inspection assessments, mechanical integrity audits, and process engineering. He has experience as a Chief Inspector planning and executing turnarounds, supervising day-to-day inspection needs, and managing projects. Prior to joining Becht, Mr. Caserta served Inspection Supervisor at a 100,000 bpd refinery. During this time, he managed a team of over 25 inspection and engineering professionals. This experience included inspection planning and executing turnarounds, supervising day-to-day inspection needs, and managing projects. He has overseen a complete re-circuitization and inspection of refinery piping systems. Mr. Caserta is involved in the API Subcommittee on Inspection and Mechanical Integrity (SCIMI). He was the Vice-Chair of API 585 second edition and the Chair of the API 970 second edition on Corrosion Control Documents.

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Fired Equipment Turnaround Reviews

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